In the prologue:
- how to make money: pick and sell flowers. It is the easiest way, will raise your herbalism and make you smell nice.
- how to get lockpicks: go to the old drunk that owes your dad money, lose or leave the conversation after he refuse. Sneak into his house and find the locked chest. Your character will mention that Fritz could give you some. Go talk to Fritz and get 4 of them for free.
- don't commit crimes in the first village and end up in jail or do and see what happens.
- You can steal from merchant stall but beware of guards.
- stolen items have an icons, they supposedly go after a while. Note that uncooked meat will lose the icon once cooked.
- Follow the main quests in the prologue, the game opens after it and the prologue doesn't really have side stuff in it.

azarhal just proved an old one - losing is sometimes better than winning. I didn't know about lockpicks, thanks!

Additions to it:

- You're playing a peasant, so get in that role. Picking herbs and flowers is not something to neglect. With all those flowers not only you'll smell nice, eventually with some "know how" your STR will also benefit from it - you'll be carrying tons of those with you all the time no wonder you've trained some muscles.

- In that first chapter, what you cannot sell in the first settlement (limited money on traders), just drop on the ground and forgeddit BEFORE giving nails to a girl that will come to your father. You need to be able to run.

- Buy the book (tavern).

- As azarhal said after that first chapter follow the main questline till you reach a miller. Do him all favors as soon as possible - BEFORE proceeding the main quest.
After you're done with miller's sidequests, he'll open a shop with 500 coins at his disposal that refreshes those coins daily. Till then, everything you cannot sell just stash in the chest by your bed. Buy the book from him!

- Done with miller's? Continue main quests till you get a freebie horse. After you get it, it's time for some actual game. Exploration and sidequesting!
Main story? Cmon, who play the main story before you complete all sidequests?! IGN and Gamespot reviewers, yea, I know. But I didn't know you're one.

But then I got a skillbook and a loaded dice from Henry's father chest (the only thing I unlocked in the intro). I was actually wondering if we could get these later or not.

Now I kinda want to unlock everything in the village and check every trader's inventory. Aargh!

Another tip:
- Once more about flower picking, well more like herb picking because I suspect a lots of these are used in alchemy. You gather all the near ones of the same type that you can see. So if you select one plant but there is 2-3 of the same time in your view and not that far away, they will also be picked up. That can speed up gathering if you face the plants properly (sneaking can help here).

Originally Posted by azarhal
Now I kinda want to unlock everything in the village and check every trader's inventory. Aargh!

I know that feel. I'm a hair close to restart from the beginning, but then, what will I leave for the replay?

Originally Posted by BlackVoid
We need to start sharing the "Mill arrival" saves, with everything exploited in prologue.

Not a bad idea at all! But that's not exploiting, it's just reliving a day in life of a young goatfuc… Errrr… Khm…

If noone beats me to it, expect it tomorrow night (CET ofc).
EDIT:
Killing dogs with arrows adds XP on hunting and bows. And agility ofc. Chicken, sadly, no. Just tried it. I wish I knew this before.
Not sure about shooting at other animals.
Keep in mind that you need arm armor to not get hurt before you get level 5 of ranged skill! Also, don't let people see you shooting their pets.

Having the crosshair isn't going to help much outside telling you where is the middle of the screen. Depending on the distance of the target, bow type and skill level the arrows are going to drop with distance differently until they reach the ground (or hit something). You have to learn to aim based on distance to the target and the weapon in hand.

More tips:
- bumping into people cause reputation drop (you know when people angrily tell you to shove off). As does eating from a pot and not putting something back in.
- in town, when your reputation is too low, guards will try to search you very often (for stolen stuff).
- to "reset" reputation, go to jail…I saw someone suggest to stash all your stuff and then punch a villager and surrender.

Didn't know that stuff about reputation and I don't actually care much. I bump at them and eat for free.

A gamestopper quest is catching 3 nightingale birds.
Save before you trap the first one. Then catch other two and return back to the questgiver without saving game or stopping anywhere. If you're ambushed on the road just ride the horse away. Ignore wayfarers and stuff. Once you return birds to questgiver, you're good to save game again.
If you load the savegame in the middle of this quest past getting the first bird, it'll make this quest impossible to complete - on talking to questgiver the game will just hang.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by azarhal
- to "reset" reputation, go to jail…I saw someone suggest to stash all your stuff and then punch a villager and surrender.

This is the only solution to Tough Love quest bug (instead of talking to you, the executioner attacks you on sight). I will not share this on Steam.
Keep in mind that jail will kick a temporary debuff on you so avoid fights till it goes away.